Kyl: GOP Committed to Overturning Health Care Reform

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl said Wednesday that Senate Republicans are committed to repealing the new health care reform law and will move to defund it should they fail to overturn it.

The Arizona Republican acknowledged that a repeal is highly unlikely given it would require the support of 60 Senators to overcome a likely filibuster, in addition to the fact that President Barack Obama would veto such a bill if it landed on his desk.

“Let me be very clear. The position of the Republican Senators, all of us, is to repeal Obamacare if we can. If we can’t, having tried to do so, we will do everything we can to defund all or parts of it, to shave parts of it off … to try to reduce the scope of the rules and regulations,” Kyl told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, according to a transcript of the interview posted on Hewitt’s website.

“In other words,” Kyl continued, “in every way that we can, we’re going to try to reduce the effect of Obamacare. And it starts with the repeal effort, which we will not give up on, even if we don’t first succeed. But if you try it, and you can’t get it done because we don’t have the majority in the Senate, and really in the Senate, it would take 60 votes, so that isn’t going to happen, then the next thing you do is instead of just giving up and saying, OK, we tried to repeal it and that’s the end of it, then you begin going to Plan B and Plan C and so on, and you hope that someday, you can get back to Plan A, which is to ensure its full repeal.”

The health care law was enacted last spring after clearing the House and Senate without any Republican votes. GOP incumbents and challengers this cycle have said they would try to overturn the law next year if elected, while several Democrats ­— including Obama — have signaled a willingness to try to tweak it next year.